What’s Sold and For Sale in Pasadena Real Estate – September 2104.

Here is interesting news for home-buyers lusting after great real estate but finding credit standards onerous.

Fannie Mae , Freddie Mac and mortgage lenders are nearing an agreement that could lower barriers and restrictions on borrowers with weak credit, a move that would expand access to home loans amid the sluggish housing recovery.

The move by the mortgage-finance giants and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, would help lenders protect themselves from claims of making bad loans, according to people familiar with the matter.

Fannie and Freddie are also considering programs that would make it easier for lenders to offer mortgages with down payments of as little as 3% for some borrowers, the people said. That would be a reversal for the loan giants. The moves could be announced as soon as this coming week.

Regulators and White House officials have struggled to expand access to mortgages, which have been hard for some borrowers to get since the financial crisis despite a sharp rise in home prices. But the likely moves by Fannie and Freddie could provide kindling for critics who worry about repeating some of the mistakes that led to the housing boom and bust.

Meanwhile here is the state of Pasadena real estate for September. Things are ambivalent.
Last month we asked if Pasadena was slowing like the rest of California. In August, every category we track moved down. But in-the-office conversations among our fellow Realtors indicated that it wasn’t.

Here’s the latest:

Pending Sales
Pasadena’s pending sales (properties under contract but not yet closed) continued to drop. There were 170 in July to 156 in August to 131 in September – down 16% for the month. That’s the lowest pending sale number since February. We said last month “let’s watch September”, so now we raise the caution flag for the holiday season and into January. Pending sales are a picture of the market 30 – 60 days in the future. We note that last years’ pending index dropped each month from October through February however, so this may indicate the seasonal slowing.

Number of Sales
Pasadena residential sales also slumped after a summer-fall run up for June through August. We counted 126 sales in Pasadena, compared to August of 174 – down almost 28 percent. Last year’s September sales numbered 144, or 12.5% higher than this year.

The for-sale inventory increased to 329 for-sale properties. That is higher than any month since we started tracking in July of 2013. We also note also that the supply of homes for sale is 2.6 months, again higher than any month since last February. (February represented a high in inventory and a low in number of sales.) The 329 Pasadena properties for sale at the end of September compares to 308 a year ago.

Prices
Pasadena’s average sold price per square foot increased, to $497, and that is up 2.3% from last month, and up 17.5% over last year. The $500,000 home you owned last year is probably worth $587,500!

The Pasadena median price increased 6.3% from last month, and is up 10% from a year ago. Median price means that half the sales in September were higher and half lower than the median of $680,000.

We cautiously predict that we are moving into the holiday mode, that parents have found and moved into the school district of choice, investors are sitting aside, and we will see a slowing till February. The loan news at the beginning of this report can be a game-changer, so we will report on that the minute we find out anything.